


if i could pull you closer

by boulevards



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: F/M, Flirting, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Pining, i love raihan send tweet, idk if this counts as slow burn, improper use of british slang, leon and nessa are great wingmen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:28:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23776855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boulevards/pseuds/boulevards
Summary: leon and nessa are plotting something and gordie is 100% in on it, too. (hint: it has everything to do with you, but raihan doesn’t know that yet.)
Relationships: Kibana | Raihan/Reader
Comments: 7
Kudos: 130





	if i could pull you closer

Raihan doesn’t like a lot of things: Fairy-types. Boring Pokémon battles. Half-melted snow mixed with dirt messily sticking to Hammerlocke’s cobblestone roads in the winter. The way Leon and Nessa keep whispering to each other before glancing over at him like they’re plotting something. Or the way Gordie makes eye contact with him from across the room and gives him an encouraging thumbs-up, grinning as if to say that he knows something Raihan doesn’t.

He’s just trying to enjoy his Friday evening lounging on a couch in Leon’s Wyndon townhouse and spending time with his friends as they celebrate the end of another gym challenge season. But the excitement in Nessa’s eyes as she shoves her phone into Leon’s grasp and the sneaky looks they keep sending his way threaten to disturb his peace. Not to mention Gordie, who still has that stupid grin on his face—the absolute _tosser_.

There’s a sharp knock on the front door. Nessa bolts out of the living room to answer it and Raihan mentally braces himself for whatever kind of chaos is about to happen.

Then, when you walk in looking staggeringly beautiful and breathtakingly divine, Raihan determines that he’s going to kill Leon and Nessa—and maybe Gordie, too.

(Raihan meets you for the first time at Nessa’s twenty-fifth birthday party in Hulbury while scouring the house trying to figure out where the _hell_ Leon disappeared to. Maybe he should keep calling him until the git actually answers his phone or track down Nessa and ask if she’s seen him. Or maybe he should just walk into every room and yell out Leon’s name in hopes that he’ll show up at some point.

Somewhere between the living room and the kitchen, he accidentally bumps into you and nearly sends you toppling to the floor if not for his quick reflexes—his hands reaching out to grab your waist, yours lightly pressing against his chest as you right yourself. And before he has the chance to finish his frantic apology, you reassure him that you’re okay, flashing a dazzling smile that leaves him speechless.

And at that moment, with his hands still on your waist and yours still on his chest, Raihan decides to throw every plan he had to find Leon out the window.)

The panic mode in Raihan’s head switches on the second you plop down next to him on the couch. He stiffens. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices Nessa and Gordie watching like a pair of Noctowl from the other side of the room, and suddenly there’s a palpable feeling of nervousness in the air. You’re seemingly unbothered by it, as your gaze meets his and your lips break out into a gorgeous smile that makes him feel like he’s going to implode. But then you start talking—your soft Hulbury lilt is _adorable_ —and Raihan begins to find himself at ease again.

He wants to tell you how he feels—how he kinda, maybe, likes you a little bit and how he kinda, maybe, would like it if you went out with him sometime—but he pushes it away for later. There are too many people around anyway. Hop and Milo are sitting on the floor and having a conversation about Wooloo, not too far from where he’s sitting with you on the couch, and he isn’t too sure he wants them overhearing him confess his feelings to you.

But he can’t push away the surging feeling in his chest that he gets from the way you glance over at him with a brilliant grin when you tell him about your upcoming endeavors and from the way your eyes light up when he shows you pictures of his Flygon eating berries.

Somehow, during your conversation, his arm finds its way around your waist and your head comes to rest on his shoulder—at some point, he had decided he didn’t care if he was being subtle or not. And, later in the night when he’s feeling a little bolder, he dips his head down to whisper in your ear, “Do you wanna get out of here?”

You respond by tugging him to his feet. Raihan rolls his eyes at the wink Leon gives him as you pull him out the front door.

(“Your breathing is a little heavy,” you say. You’re standing next to him on Nessa’s balcony and leaning against the rail, your shoulder touching his.

“Are you making fun of me? I think you’re making fun of me.”

“I’m not, I swear,” you reply. “Only pointing it out.”

“I’m just a little nervous,” he admits.

“Nervous?”

“Yeah. Because you’re really cute.”

And when the sweet sound of your laughter fills the air, he can’t stop himself from grinning.)

Wyndon glitters in the dark, but it’s nothing compared to the way you smile up at him when you step out onto the empty street. A street lamp bathes you in light and Raihan has the urge to wrap you up in his arms and kiss you right then and there—and _Arceus_ , he wants to—but he stops. Instead, after a reminder to not get too ahead of himself, he holds out his hand.

He can barely contain his giddiness when he feels your fingers intertwine with his.

“Where to?” you inquire as he begins walking down the street with you by his side and your hand in his in between.

“Wherever you want,” he replies.

There’s a glimmer in your eye as you ask, “I know it’s late, but do you think the Ferris wheel is still open?”

“The Hurricane? I doubt it,” he says, glancing at the circle of lights in the distance. Suddenly, an idea pops into his head and he hesitates, but ultimately decides that he’s daring enough to add on, “But I can take you sometime, if you want.”

You smile, “I’d like that.”

Raihan feels like he just won the League Championship.

(“Why’ve you got that moony look on your face?” Gordie comments from across the room. 

“What are you talking about?” Raihan grunts, looking up from his phone and his text messages to you, suppressing his smile so he can shoot a questioning look at the blond. Gordie shrugs in response before returning to paging through his geology book.

“He’s talking about the fact that you look like an idiot in love,” Piers chimes in from his place on the other end of the couch, “and we, by virtue of being your friends, want to know why.”

“Hold on, who said I was in love?” Raihan scoffs. “I’m not in love.”

“That’s rubbish, mate,” Piers rolls his eyes. “You’re totally in love. Anyone could tell you that.”

“It’s Nessa’s friend, isn’t it?” Leon interjects, walking into the room with a cup of tea in one hand and a half-eaten slice of toast in the other. “The one you were talking to at her birthday party, right? You guys were on the balcony together for a while. You seemed kinda close.”

“We’re just friends,” Raihan grumbles. And that’s the truth because you really are _just friends_ , even though he texts you every day and thinks about you all the time—and wishes that you were more than _just friends_.

Gordie lets out a disgustingly loud chortle and Piers smirks, “Whatever you say.”

Then his phone buzzes and his heart soars when he sees that it’s a new message from you.

All right, fine. Maybe he _is_ in love.)

Raihan doesn’t like a lot of things: Poorly organized shelves. The Skwovet raiding the berry trees in his backyard. Spending hours in the shower washing sand out of his hair.

But he wakes the next morning in his flat and finds you still asleep on the couch. Then he remembers how he had spent the night exploring Wyndon with you, how he had mustered up enough courage to ask you if you wanted to stay at his place for the night, and how elated he felt when you said yes. So maybe, just _maybe_ , he can appreciate Leon and Nessa’s meddling—only if it means he gets to spend more time with you.

(He’s still considering whether or not to send his Duraludon after Gordie, though.)

**Author's Note:**

> apparently, you can’t ride the ferris wheel in wyndon in the games like the one in nimbasa big sad
> 
> title from jake scott's "favorite t-shirt"


End file.
